Exploring Wikis: Tiddlywiki

TiddlywikiThe genius of the Tiddlywiki is its simplicity. The wiki is a self contained single html file that has inside it all the code formatting and data that magically becomes a wiki when viewed with a browser.


Thus the tiddlywiki could run off a webserver like apache or carried around in a laptop or USB drive. You could also have your Tiddlywiki  hosted online.

Tiddlywiki has the ability to be customized. Snippets of functionality, referred to as Tiddlers developed by a vibrant community of developers, can be  imported into a tiddlywiki as required by the user. The "tiddly tool" include contact/address books, clocks, browser,Mindmap tools, GTD tools and more.

 Many customized versions of Tiddlywiki are available, thanks to the efforts of these developers Below are a few useful links from Lifehacker for those who choose to explore this little marvel:

Host your TiddlyWiki at Tiddlyspot
GTD Tiddlywiki
Monkey GTD Tiddlywiki
Adding an addressbook to Tiddlywiki
Tiddlywiki Student Edition
TiddlyVault

TiddlyTools
Grab Text for your TiddlyWiki with TiddlySnip

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Tiddlywiki: The ultimate organizational tool

Tiddlywiki
For the last few days, following the advice of Gina Trapani of LifeHacker, I decided to give TiddlyWiki a spin. I have always been on the lookout for productivity and organization tools. I have read numerous books on this subject too.Among the best of them is Getting Things Done by David Allen.

Over the years, after playing with Outlook and numerous online and desktop tools and was not satisfied with any of them. This was until I found Tiddlywiki.

Tiddlywiki is a wiki/ online notebook that is customizable into a to-do list, a collaboration tool, etc.(Visit their site for other uses of Tiddlywiki).


I was surprised to find flavors of tiddlywiki modeled on the methodology of David Allen's Getting Things Done. Here are a few

• Tom Otvos' d-cubed adaptation
• Simon Baird's Monkey GTD adaptation
• Clint Checkett's GTDTiddlyWiki plus adaptation

I played with the first of these, the d-cubed adaptation. This is one of the most impressive, customizable and flexible tools I had used.

This is a single html file that can be used to keep all of one's appointments, tasks, notes, reminders, etc.
Along with this file, the download package also includes a jar file(Java executable archive). By merely saving the tiddly html and jar file in a folder on your computer, you create a powerful versioing system. Each time you make changes to the tiddly file, a backup of the previous version which enable you to track changes or revert to a previos version

The beauty of the wiki is that it can be stored with the jar file in a thumb drive and can be immensely useful for those of us on the go. One person describes in a lifehacker article, how he carries around his wiki and Firefox portable in his thumb drive and has access to it on any PC.

The tiddly file can also be hosted on a site.
Hosting Tiddlywiki Online

• The most popular of these is tiddlyspot. I must admit that I had problems hosting it on this site.
• Here is an example of tiddlywiki hosted on Googlepages.

Then I realized there was a whole community of developers creating plugins to customize the wiki.

Tiddlywiki Plugin Sites

Here are two sites that have some of the most innovative plugins one can incorporate into the wiki:

• TiddlyVault,
• Eric Shulman's TiddlyTools.

My tiddlywiki has also an addressbook that I integrated from twab. In addition to saving contact information, this addressbook also has tools to import contacts from Yahoo, Google or CSV files.
It also includes an export mechanism

Further, I have a mini browser with my bookmarks I got from Shulman's site. The Tiddlywiki is a small and powerful tool and is testimony that great software functionality can some in the smallest of packages.


Gina Trapani of Lifehacker is a big fan of Tiddlywiki and warns about its addictive abilities. You are well adviced to take her example seriously. Here are links to several articles on LifeHacker about Tiddlywiki.


Lifehacker Articles on Tiddlywiki

Getting Things Done TiddlyWiki
How to use GTD TiddlyWiki
Get organized with GTDTiddlyWiki
Host your TiddlyWiki at Tiddlyspot
Embed any web page inside Thunderbird
Add an Interactive Address Book to your TiddlyWiki with twab
Integrate a Personal Wiki into Outlook's Today pane
TiddlyWiki-SE
Get things done with MonkeyGTD
Grab Text for your TiddlyWiki with TiddlySnip
Ask Lifehacker: Opening one file with a different program?
Hack Attack: Quicklaunch your USB workspace
Take In-Browser Notes to Read Anywhere with TiddlySticky
Tagged single-page wiki, TagglyWiki
ServerSideWiki, hosted GTDTiddlyWiki
Top 10 Underhyped Webapps

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